By tim morris
Staff Writer
The real winner at Saturday’s inaugural Rebel Relays were the relays themselves as 53 schools from across the state traveled to Howell High School to start a tradition.
Competition was held in three divisions created by size of the school.
Raritan (Division I), Middletown South (Division II) and Jackson (Division III) were the winners in the girls’ competition. On the boys’ side, it was almost a replay of the girls with Raritan and Middletown South winning the Division I and II events. Freehold Township won Division III.
Raritan used wins in four events to score 78 points and turn back Colts Neck (59) and Freehold Borough (57).
Leading the way for the Rockets were throwing stars Kelly Robinson and Amanda Harmata, who had a hand in three of the wins. They teamed up to help the Rockets capture the shot put (109-6 3/4), javelin (335-1) and discus (309-1) titles.
Raritan’s other win was on the track in the 4×400 with Nicole Berzinskis, Kristin Langan, Brittany Feehan and Mallory Sullivan posting a 4:29.1.
South’s girls rolled up 96 points, easily out-pointing runner-up Wall Township (78). The Eagles scored six wins in Division II. Tina Morrison, Kolleen McCauley, Brianne Moran, Jessica Morreale, Lisa Zino, Jane Wood, Alexandra Simonetti, Kellyann Hennessy, Aislinn DeLeon, Stacy Elkhatib, Andrew Emmanuele and Kristen Soyka shined on the track where the Eagles won the 4×800 (10:23), the sprint medley (4:42.1), the 3×400 hurdles (4:09.3), the distance medley (13:07) and the 4×100 hurdles (1:18.9).
In the throwing event, Lindsey Berardo, Dominique Iapicco and Amanda Johnson were the trio that won the discus (186-11).
South’s other win was the high jump (9-2).
Raritan’s boys were led by a sweep of the throwing events. Jason Edwards, Mike Dockery and Matt Kosmoski helped the Rockets win the shot put (131-7 1/4), javelin (374-2) and discus (341-3) relays as they finished 10-points up on runner-up Freehold (75-65).
Phil Simone, Joe Kirby and Jim Papcun won twice for the Rockets. They won the 3×400 hurdles (3:09) and, with Sean Altland running anchor, were first in the 4×400 (3:45.3).
Raritan’s sixth win was the distance medley with Phil Carney, Altland and Matt Dahl helping win in 11:22. Colts Neck won the 4×800 relay in this division with Justin Franklin, Chris Shoen, Phil Valenziano and Joe Civitano doing a 9:10.1.
Five wins propelled the Eagles’ boys to their Division II triumph with 82 points.
Rob Osborne, Dan Cohen, Ben Graf, Mike Dillon and Eric Dohler were helpful in the Eagles win in the 4×200 (1:38.9), 4×800 (8:46.5) and 3×400 hurdles (3:28). South also won the high jump with Chris Sole and Nick Georgiou (11-2), and the javelin (345-2).